Whiskey and the West: Rebellion detailed in Peters Township program
Given its importance in the grand scheme of American history – not to mention its naming after an alcoholic beverage – the Whiskey Rebellion often fails to get its due.
That’s not the case, of course, in the parts of Washington and Allegheny counties where historical celebrations and re-enactments take place each year. But the first serious challenge to the authority of the U.S. government stretched much farther than this corner of the country.
“Anything west of the Appalachian Mountains is where the Whiskey Rebellion happened, and it happened everywhere,” historian Todd DePastino explained. “We tend to think of it as occurring in Western Pennsylvania because this is where we live and this is where the most dramatic events happened. But this rebellion was from Western New York all the way down to Western Georgia.”
As the annual Whiskey Rebellion Festival in Washington approached, DePastino presented a highly informative and often-entertaining program about the events of 1791-94 that culminated with 13,000 troops marching on the then-small town of Pittsburgh. The short story, the one you probably heard in history class, is that objections to a federal excise tax on whiskey led to widespread discontent, with President George Washington and Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton eventually bringing down the hammer.
“We had come from a place where you were allowed to declare independence from rulers you no longer recognized. I think they saw that it was absolutely their right to kind of step out of the Union when they wanted.” – Todd DePastino
But the version told by DePastino, a Mt. Lebanon resident who has a doctorate in American history from Yale University, contains a cast of characters that runs the gamut from the aforementioned Founding Fathers to common folk who were attempting to eke out a living.
“It was a movement of poor against rich,” DePastino said. “These were largely poor farmers and poor craftsmen in the West who were rebelling against a wealthier merchant class in the East.”
One saving grace for the Westerners was whiskey, as the grain produced by farmers could be transported to Eastern markets – at the time, the only practical outlet for trade – much more expediently in distilled form. And in Philadelphia, a gallon of the strong stuff could fetch $1 per gallon, the equivalent of $2,000 today.
“Whiskey was so important to American society in the 1790s. People drank a lot of it, shocking amounts,” DePastino reported. Some teetotalers did exist, but: “If you take the people who did drink and divide it among all the alcohol that was being produced, people were drinking like three shots of whiskey a day, on average.”
Between the trade value and favorite-beverage aspect of whiskey, taxing it didn’t exactly sit well with some people. Among them were the men who formed the Mingo Creek Association, what DePastino termed an “underground paramilitary organization,” based at the Presbyterian church of the same name in present-day Union Township.
“They quickly declared the excise tax null and void here in Western Pennsylvania,” he said. “They decided to shut down the courts. And they proceeded to patrol, to stop any tax collector from collecting the tax.”
Among the would-be collectors was Robert Johnson, whose place in history is as the first tar-and-feather victim of the Mingo men. A federal marshal who attempted to arrest the perpetrators received the same treatment.
In less-violent action, a team of local officials petitioned Washington and Hamilton for relief, and they agreed to lower the whiskey tax slightly.
“Not good enough,” DePastino said.
During a subsequent meeting in Pittsburgh led by Washington attorney David Bradford – his still-standing house on Main Street is the epicenter of the city’s annual celebration – the rebels basically declared the federal government null and void in their neck of the woods.
• Whiskey Rebellion Day will be held from 1:30 to 4:30 p.m. July 15 at the Oliver Miller Homestead, one of the key sites of the 1790s challenge to the U.S. government.
On July 15, 1794, government representatives Gen. John Neville and Maj. David Lenox attempted to serve homeowner William Miller with a subpoena to collect a federal excise tax on whiskey. The confrontation that ensued involved the rebel Mingo Creek Association, with the result of subsequent attacks on Neville’s farm.
During Whiskey Rebellion Day, narration and three skits by re-enactors – “Serving the Writ,” “The Women Speak and William Miller is Kentucky Bound” – will take place starting at 2:30 p.m. to explain more about how the Miller family was.
Buildings on the site will be closed during the skits, but open before and after. The process of making rye whiskey will be discussed in the barn, and Whiskey Rebellion books will be on display in the log house.
Admission for the special event is $2.
• This year’s Woodville Plantation event will be from 1 to 5 p.m. July 15 on the organization’s property at 1375 Washington Pike in Collier Township.
Featured will be military encampments, drills, demonstrations and re-enactments of the two-day battle at Bower Hill that ended with the Neville House burning to the ground.
For more information, visit woodvilleplantation.org.
“They didn’t officially declare secession from the United States of America, but man, did they come really, really close,” DePastino said.
Enter Gen. John Neville, who “might have been the wealthiest man west of the Allegheny Mountains in the 1780s and 1790s.”
For reasons that aren’t all that clear to historians, including DePastino, Neville decided he must collect the excise tax and published a notice to that effect in May 1794. He and a federal marshal, Maj. David Lenox, proceeded to attempt to serve subpoenas to 60 delinquents.
In response, about 50 armed Mingo Creek members showed up at Neville’s farm in what now is Scott Township. Shots were exchanged, and one killed a nephew of William Miller, whose residence in South Park has been preserved as the Oliver Miller Homestead.
The attackers withdrew to Fort Couch, at the site of a present-day Bethel Park restaurant, and decided to try again with a larger contingent. On July 17, some 600 men marched on Neville’s farm.
Their leader, James McFarlane, was shot dead this time. In retaliation, they burned Neville’s house to the ground.
Five days later, they convened again at Mingo Creek Presbyterian Church.
“This is really where David Bradford and the crowd all but declared independence from the United States of America,” DePastino explained, and they planned to contact fellow malcontents in other regions to discuss the possibility of establishing their own nation.
At that point, an attendee named Hugh Henry Brackenridge, whose achievements included founding the University of Pittsburgh, told them they’d be tried for treason.
“I think the people in that room didn’t understand this,” DePastino said. “We had come from a place where you were allowed to declare independence from rulers you no longer recognized. I think they saw that it was absolutely their right to kind of step out of the Union when they wanted. Brackenridge was telling them, ‘No, it isn’t.'”
They proceeded, though, to plan their next move, which was to march on and occupy Pittsburgh, which had only about 1,000 residents at the time but was a bastion of support for the federal government. On Aug. 1, between 5,000 and 7,000 men gathered in Braddock to start venturing west.
“David Bradford showed up on a white horse in a uniform that he had custom-made, with feathers and plumes and everything, and he was ready to lead this army,” DePastino said.
Brackenridge, meanwhile, had undermined the effort by warning the people of Pittsburgh, who prepared a massive banquet – featuring plenty of whiskey, of course – for the marchers. They ended up feasting instead of fighting and then were sent across the Monongahela River on ferries, none of which was making the return trip.
Back in Philadelphia, Alexander Hamilton was furious when he heard about the attack on Neville’s house and about the attack on Pittsburgh, DePastino said. He asked Washington for a 13,000-man army to put down the Whiskey Rebellion – Hamilton actually was the one who came up with that term – once and for all, and the president agreed. He even led one of the army’s wings as far as Bedford.
“As the army approached, most of the rebels saw the size and left,” DePastino said. “Two thousand Western Pennsylvanians got in flatboats and sailed down the Ohio River as far as they could go. Most of them settled in Kentucky.”
About 300 of those who remained were dragged out of bed on the “Dreadful Night” of Nov. 11 and held in dreadful conditions for 10 days. Most were released after appearing before a judge, but 20 were marched to Philadelphia to stand trial, arriving on Christmas Day.
A grand jury then dismissed charges against eight of them. Of the remaining 12, 10 were acquitted. Two men, Philip Wigle – he’s the one for which the Pittsburgh-distilled whiskey brand is named – and John Mitchell, were convicted of treason and sentenced to death. But Washington pardoned them and sent them back home.
And the Union remained intact, at least for another 67 years. But that story is one that definitely gets its due.